Abdulrokhman Kartonegoro

Contact

I am working on Systematics, Phylogenetic and Biogeography of Family Melastomataceae especially the woody climber Group of Dissochaeta and its allies (Creochiton, Diplectria and Macrolenes) from South East Asia. The circumscription of this groups still questionable since the relationship within the group not finish yet to resolve. My work for this plant group was start since I engaged with The Research Center for Biology (LIPI) in Bogor, Indonesia. I also working on other Genera in this Family such a Medinilla, Pachycentria and Sonerila.

Research

Research interest

Dissochaeta is one of the interesting climbing genera in Malesian Melastomataceae with c. 40 species that have very variable morphological characters and exhibit wide distribution ranges. The systematic classification within this genus and among allied genera is problematic. This project will 1) revise the taxonomy of the genus, 2) address the phylogenetic relationship within and among the allied genera using morphology and molecular dataset, 3) construct a new classification on the basis of molecular phylogenetics and 4) analyse he historical biogeography. Phylogenetic research will concentrate on two datasets, a morphological dataset and a molecular dataset. The morphological dataset will be based on the character found during the revision of the herbarium material and field collections. The molecular dataset will be taken from silica dried material or herbarium material if possible. The results of both analyses will be compared and the morphological characters will be plotted on the molecular data to construct a combined phylogenetic tree. Biogeographical research will include mapping the distributions based on the collections and creating species distributions models to fully optimize the distributions. Endemicity analysis will be used to indicate ‘areas of endemism’, S-DIVA and DEC will be used to analyse the historical biogeography.